Lovati: following traditions with high-quality and high-performance products

2013-06-20 | Company news

During our recent visit to Lovati, in the area of Milan, northern Italy, we discovered how the company is continuously developing and updating its machinery, while maintaining the same level of high quality that the company and its machines are well known for all over the world.

One of the most important characteristics of Lovati is that of making special machines to transport particular types of glass

We went to visit Lovati, one of Italy’s most known and respected machinery manufacturers, to get an update on the situation. Angelo Lovati and his daughter Corinna spoke to us about the company’s products and new developments, with constant quality in mind.

Lovati’s machinery rangeIf we speak about developments and changes in the glass sector, we must also consider the shift from certain types of processing and finishing to others. One of the most important and frequently-used processes was bevelling, which, right now, really seems to be going out of fashion.

Moving around the glassworks - loadersRight from the start, one of the most important machines for Lovati was and is loaders – obviously fundamental for glassworks. Our loaders are equipped with NC (and have been for some years now), and are therefore easy to programme and change jobs and glass types. Lovati loaders start from dimensions of glass sheets of 2 x 1.5 metres, up to medium sizes of 3 metres x 2 metres, and even those for glass of 6 x 3.21 metres.You can therefore understand that these loaders have numerous applications: small and medium are those to be installed inline with bilateral grinders and edgers, as well as with washing machines and multi-head drills.The largest loaders – those for Jumbo glass – are installed inline with plants for the production of mirrors – silvering lines for example. Lovati has built many of these latter types of plants for Brazil and Argentina, for important glassmake...

We went to visit Lovati, one of Italy’s most known and respected machinery manufacturers, to get an update on the situation. Angelo Lovati and his daughter Corinna spoke to us about the company’s products and new developments, with constant quality in mind.

Lovati’s machinery rangeIf we speak about developments and changes in the glass sector, we must also consider the shift from certain types of processing and finishing to others. One of the most important and frequently-used processes was bevelling, which, right now, really seems to be going out of fashion.

Moving around the glassworks - loadersRight from the start, one of the most important machines for Lovati was and is loaders – obviously fundamental for glassworks. Our loaders are equipped with NC (and have been for some years now), and are therefore easy to programme and change jobs and glass types. Lovati loaders start from dimensions of glass sheets of 2 x 1.5 metres, up to medium sizes of 3 metres x 2 metres, and even those for glass of 6 x 3.21 metres.You can therefore understand that these loaders have numerous applications: small and medium are those to be installed inline with bilateral grinders and edgers, as well as with washing machines and multi-head drills.The largest loaders – those for Jumbo glass – are installed inline with plants for the production of mirrors – silvering lines for example. Lovati has built many of these latter types of plants for Brazil and Argentina, for important glassmakers, such as Cebrace, Blindex, Saint-Gobain and Pilkington, to name a few.We also make loaders for special applications, for example, to transport armoured glass into the auto-clave.We made one of these machines for Saint-Gobain, which is a loader able to pick up the sheets of glass from the conveyor of the laminated line, put them in vertical position, load them on both sides of the racks to go into the autoclave. This loader can transport up to 1,200-1,300 kilos.Being numerically controlled, the machine calculates the weight and therefore how many sheets of glass to load onto the racks, as well as where and how many ‘spacers’ to insert too.When the rack is full on one side, the loader starts to position other sheets onto the other side of the rack.This loading and unloading plant is about 20 metres in length and about 6 metres in height. This is also due to the fact that at the exit of the conveyor there is also a centring system that is able to load onto the rack the Jumbo-sized sheets, of course, but also the half-sized sheets and smaller sheets too.These different sizes are, of course, indicated by the machine operators on loading the glass sheets, indicating how many and which different types of glass are to be loaded onto the racks.One of the most important characteristics of Lovati is that of making special machines to transport particular types of glass they come to us.For example, we have just finished the design and layout for a loader that does not need to unload large glass sheets, and on the other hand, it needs to unload sheets of 800 x 800 millimetres, but at a speed of 300 pieces per hour – 1 every 12 seconds, and it also places two lengths of cord instead of separating layers between the glass sheets, calculating when, where and how much.This is probably the first time that anything like this has been done.

NC workcentresWe have been making these machines for many years – with numerical control of course. Sizes range from 1.5 x 1.5 metres up to 10 x 3.21 metres. And also for this type of machine, we have created one in particular – of the above size, for a German company – Seele – able to process using cup wheels, with exceptional finishing results. In fact, Seele actually created the glass stairway on show at glasstec in 2006 using our machinery. This particular machine is able to process glass of 9 x 3.21 metres.Our company philosophy is and has always been to manufacture machinery with high quality standards, and, in demonstration of this, I can say that I recently received a request for a part for one of our machines made in 1988! In the sector of NC workcentres, we have been making machines with double spindles and moveable tables – the LOV – 622 – 2T/S for some years now.The table, in fact, is made up of two different parts, and can therefore process two different sheets of glass at the same time.This means double the work load with the same time, eliminating down times for loading and unloading operations. These machines are highly requested for companies working in the home appliance sector, where large batches are still requested.In Italy, for example, one of our clients is Euroveder, which uses our machine for continuous production. The machine processes normal glass but can also process glass-ceramic if needed. At present we are – and have always been – leaders. We have also received an order for Equador, where we have sold one of these machines.You may wonder how we could sell a machine there! But, with regards to international sales, we have a network of representatives who sell our machinery in their different areas.

BEMBEM is a very particular machine, the only one of its kind, which does not need any positioning of the glass sheets, because machine set-up is completely automatic. The operator prepares the programme of the different sizes, shapes and thicknesses of glass that the machine has to process. The glass only needs to be positioned in sequence (following the indications of the programme) and loaded onto the machine. The machine has a loader that transports the different pieces of glass to the grinding area. When the first piece of glass has been processed, the machine transports the second item. During transport of the glass, the suction cups, which are mounted on a number of bars, adapt to its size and shape under the glass. This means that only the number of suction cups needed are activated.This machine facilitates greatly the use of NC, especially with regards to preparation. This means that all time is dedicated to the processing of the glass, and therefore, has the same production yield as three or four normal machines. Moreover, the BEM also has a tilting loading/unloading table, and can manage glass sheets of up to 6 x 3.21 metres. It is especially ideal for diversified production batches.

AlcorThe Alcor was created about two years ago, and was presented at the last edition of Vitrum. Called Alcor, it can carry out drilling and routing. It is, in fact, made up of a double-bit drill, which has the upper spindle that can also move. It also has a rotation of 12,000 rpm, and therefore can carry out notches for handles and hinges on doors. It is, obviously, NC, and can store any shape.Positioning of the glass is really simple as – depending on the programme of the glass to be processed – the machine has two positioning bars that can move so as to position the glass as per the position of the hole or notch to be carried out. It can also be equipped with a laser for the centring of the holes to be made.Software is produced in-house by Lovati, of course, and all machines are equipped with touchscreens too.This machine is seeing important success due to its interesting price/performance ratio, and is suitable for small- to medium-sized glassmakers who make doors, need to drill holes, and other operations in small numbers and batches, as it carries out these operations in about one minute.Strong and extremely robust metalworkAll our machines are made of welded metal, which is then thermally treated to remove internal stresses. We also make the bases of our machinery in a single part, which means that vibrations created during processing are eliminated. In fact, vibrations can decrease the exactness of the processes that the glass has to undergo. This also means that the machine tools are state-of-the-art.Our machines, in fact, have 0.10 planarity - not all machinery manufacturers can say that!